HUNGER GAME
Fit-again Flynn aims to win back starting place with champions
WHEN it emerged last week that no Dublin players were included in Ireland’s International Rules panel, Paul Flynn was one of the names being mentioned. After all, the hybrid game suits the hardworking wing-forward down to the ground.
It turns out that the Dublin star is getting married in December, to Dublin Ladies footballer Fiona Hudson, so heading off to Australia for a couple of weeks just before the big day wasn’t really an option.
‘I didn’t get the call but I don’t think it would have gone down well, heading off three weeks before getting married,’ Flynn explained. The absence of International Rules duty will allow the Fingallians man to focus on next season with Dublin. Although he claimed his fifth Celtic Cross in 2017, it was a stop-start year for Flynn, who was out injured for two months over the summer.
‘I was chasing my tail all year,’ he explains. ‘I missed 10 weeks in the middle of the year. I finished the season and I wasn’t even tired. Sometimes, you would be looking forward to getting the final over with, but this year, I wanted more games. I went back to the club and we had no games. The whole season had ended and I would have loved a bit more football.
‘So I am looking at next year and going to go very hard at it and give it everything I have. Once the body is good and the mind is good, and it is, I just want to get out there and play. I am hungry to play. I still believe I can start. Once I’m in that place in my head and my body supports that, I will keep it lit until my body suggests otherwise.’
Flynn is eager to regain his regular starting place, although the addition of talented youngsters, such as Con O’Callaghan, is making it tougher for the more established players to see more game-time. But Flynn reckons the Dubs are served well by having so many experienced players to call from the bench. ‘It is a great thing. This year, we had sitting on the bench myself, Bernard [Brogan], Mick Macauley, Eoghan O’Gara, Kevin Mac [McManamon], Darren Daly and Diarmuid Connolly. ‘We were all on the bench but the lads on the field, it didn’t seem to have any impact on them because they went out and were excellent. We came in and finished the job off. That’s the mindset we have now.
‘Everyone wants to start and they will push themselves hard for that starting spot, but if they don’t, they have to make sure they make an impact in that 10-minute or 20-minute stint. We have become good at that as a team, getting over the disappointment of not starting quickly and realising you still have a role to play.’
And Flynn says there is no great secret to why Dublin have been so dominant. The driving force behind their five All-Ireland titles in seven years is simply the competitive nature within the squad.
‘Competition is the biggest driver. When you have a team where nobody’s position is guaranteed, when you have that competition, it brings out the best in everybody. You can’t afford to have a bad training session, never mind a bad game.
‘And there are a lot of players in this group who, for the first five years of their career, didn’t win an All-Ireland title. I remember how tough it was, having to deal with that. When you have a team with the ability to reach the promised land, you just keep driving it home to make sure you make the most of it. This is a funny game, it can change in an instant. A kick of the ball and Mayo would have been up there, lifting Sam this year.’
Indeed, Flynn reckons Mayo, who came so agonisingly close to winning the All-Ireland yet again, are the strongest opposition he has ever faced. ‘The toughest, by far,’ he says. ‘There is such intensity about them. You don’t get a second on the ball. They are in your face and very physical. Any time we play them, there is just a kick of a ball between us.’
That kick of the ball always seems to favour Dublin, though, and that is why they are going into another winter as All-Ireland champions. And when they emerge from their hibernation next spring, Paul Flynn will be keen to show that he still has plenty to give to his county — no matter what role Jim Gavin has in mind for him.